


I Listen to You

by Kira_Dattei



Series: Developing Relationship Kinktober 2018 [10]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Canon Compliant, Crew as Family, Developing Friendships, Everyone is snarky, M/M, friends being friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 03:52:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: First and foremost, the Normandy crew are all friends. They support each other, listen to each other, and help each other when they can. They do that by listening to what they all say.





	I Listen to You

**Author's Note:**

> Here's day 11 of my Kinktober.  
> Not anything to say beforehand so, just enjoy!

Kaidan flipped through a few screens displayed on the holoscreen EDI had installed over the window of the Starboard Observation Deck a few days ago. It had been a gift, something she had suddenly decided to do for everyone, and he reminded himself to thank her again when he wasn’t working.

This was fantastic. He’d never had a screen this large and dimly lit to work off of and he was already making better progress on his queue of reports he had to read through, organize, and summarize for Hackett and Anderson, than he had in months. Not having to switch between datapads saved so much time and he'd been able to work longer spans of time before needing to break for the sake of keeping a headache from taking hold. This would be so much more efficient and he appreciated that.

“Kaidan, are you even listening?” Garrus sounded a bit irritated, which was unusual for the turian.

“Of course I’m listening. You think I can’t multitask?” he retorted without turning to face his companion. It was strange enough that Garrus had sought him out instead of Shepard, but he didn’t mind. He didn’t get as much chances to just talk to Garrus as he liked: something about the drive core kicked off his headaches faster than pretty much anywhere else on the ship and Garrus really did spent _a lot_ of time in there.

“Well, sure, you can fire a gun and throw biotics at the same time, but paperwork and interacting with people has never been your strong point,” Garrus retorted easily enough.

Kaidan shot an irritated look over his shoulder. “I appreciate your vote of confidence. You do realize that a good portion of my job is that combination of tasks, right?”

“Really? I thought that was ‘aim and fire’, being a soldier and all.” Garrus had started having fun now and Kaidan settled in for taking the scenic route to get back on track.

“Wouldn’t make much of an intel officer if I couldn’t take in information at any time. Wouldn’t make for a good Marine officer, come to think of it. Or a biotic. Or a Spec Ops division head. Or a high ranked officer. Or an instructor. Or a conversationalist.” He threw a grin toward Garrus now, who was watching him with a tolerant expression, though he could still pick up the hints of amusement in his eyes and the twitch of his mandibles.

“Aw, you’re so well-rounded,” Garrus said once he knew Kaidan was done.

“And you’re the one who ignored me telling you I was on duty and actually needed to work, so aren’t you accusing the wrong person here? You’re past C-Sec self would be embarrassed.”

“Good. Maybe he’ll throw away his misguided ideals a little faster.”

There was Kaidan’s chance. “Honesty isn’t misguided. Which is my opinion on the matter you’ve been rambling about for the past half-hour.” Kaidan really did have work to do and there was no guarantee that another opening like that would come up again so easily anytime soon. Furthermore, he was almost through the reports he could pull up with Garrus in the room and possibly see, the rest containing classified content he had to pay attention to who saw.

Yes, he still cared about that sort of thing, no matter the state of the war. He’d spent too many years handling sensitive information appropriately to shrug it off now.

“How do I know you aren’t just giving a blanket statement to cover up not knowing what I said?” That was a bit more defensive, showing how much this meant to Garrus.

So, Kaidan turned around to fully face the turian, someone he considered a good friend. They weren’t as close as Garrus and Shepard were, but they were still close from the years knowing each other and the time they spent watching the other’s six. Because Shepard ended up taking him and Garrus on landing parties regularly: Garrus was strong and his impeccable aim made a good balance to Kaidan's biotics and technical support.

“You think it isn’t worth it to try talking with Tali?” he made much less of a blanket statement to prove his point. “Take it from me: putting it off isn’t going to be something you’ll be happy about later. And I know Tali. You won’t be disappointed with her answer, as long as you’re honest.” Despite keeping his usual even tone that plenty of people claimed made him difficult to read, he figured Garrus knew him well enough to know that this was important to him.

Garrus just looked at him for a few seconds too long for Kaidan to not get suspicious about.

“You know, I was pretty pissed at you for how you treated Shepard on Horizon,” Garrus finally said, only succeeding in getting Kaidan more on edge because of the subject he brought up. Garrus had been there on Horizon with Shepard and had actually heard everything, had chosen to stand by Shepard and support him when Kaidan wouldn’t and instead threw accusations around.

While Kaidan didn’t think he’d been wrong to call out Cerberus and Shepard treating the situation too lightly, he also thought that he could have found a better way to say what he did. But he’d just been speaking from a place of hurt and hadn’t even tried. Garrus had seen that.

“Oh, yeah?” he responded neutrally.

“I don’t think anyone else really understood how he acted on Horizon since they didn't know you, but I did: he still loved you, never stopped no matter what was happening with Cerberus. And then you tore him down for being there and turned away when he asked you to come with him, gave you a chance to see why he was doing things the way he had.”

Kaidan really didn’t want to talk about this, but maybe he needed to. “But he didn’t ask me.” Garrus was about to object but Kaidan crossed his arms and continued without giving him the chance to interject. “He said 'someone like me' would be useful. I’ll admit I didn’t realize this at the time – my answer was because I was upset and the Alliance was the perfect cover for my refusal while being an actual reason – but he didn’t want me to say yes. He didn’t want me back on the Normandy with ties to Cerberus. He worded it in a way I wouldn’t respond well to. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but he’s too good with words to have messed up that colossally.”

Garrus seemed to be thinking things over, possibly looking over the conversation in question from his own perspective and knowledge of the other side of the situation, the Normandy side of it.

“I don’t think he did it on purpose, not with how he moped around for weeks after that. But I guess you have a point. Once he got back into the charge against the Collector base, he seemed to have a pretty good drive to get back.”

Kaidan felt himself flush, then admitted, “I sent him a message. Tried to clear the air between us. I apparently timed it to him getting it just before you guys hit the Relay. But I’d told him some of what was behind my reaction on Horizon, what it had been like to lose him and then for him to not be gone. I came clean about a lot and invited more if he wanted.”

“Honesty…” Garrus mused.

“Honesty. It’s been in our relationship all along and it made all the difference in the world. I don’t regret when I’m being honest, especially with him.”

Garrus stood up from the couch and walked up to Kaidan to smack him on the shoulder. “You really have changed. Liara said I should talk to you about Tali and I told her she was crazy, that there’s no way you’d be able to get out anything useful. But here you are, talking so easily about those dark days of Horizon and your oh-so-loving relationship with Shepard.”

Kaidan scowled. “Stop talking with Vega: you’re picking up some horrible habits,” he declared, getting a chuckle from the turian. “Why not talk to Shepard about this if you didn’t think I’d help? He’s usually the one you talk to about, well, anything.”

“First of all, Liara suggested you and it felt rude to ignore her. Second, Shepard can get caught up with wanting best-case-scenario results and it skews his feedback. And finally, he’s working right now.”

“So am I,” Kaidan deadpanned. Garrus just smirked at him, the expression so familiar, Kaidan could always pick it out.

“Well, yeah, but you aren’t Shepard.”

“No, I just compile all the reports into something he’ll actually read.” He pulled up his omnitool, which he’d only today gotten synced up with the screen in the way he was happy with. He then brought up his list of reports and sent them all to the display. It took a few seconds for them all to come up, overlapping each other in a wave of reports and readouts on the Reapers, the Crucible, Cerberus, Alliance and Council missions, and the miscellaneous intel believed to be relevant to the Normandy’s crew.

Garrus watched with increasing awe, which made the next few headaches Kaidan would get going through all this intel worth it.

“Well, that’s a lot,” the turian remarked.

“Shepard said it was the best part of his time with Cerberus: the lack of paperwork. All he needed was to give a verbal report and he was good to move on.”

“Did you do this before, when we were going after Saren?”

“Not really. There wasn’t nearly as much coming in so I didn’t need to. I just kept everything organized with Alliance personnel, like what Cortez does now, but I stuck with the soldiers.”

“Aw, didn’t want to branch out? But us other races are so much more entertaining than you human soldiers."

“Thank you.”

The door slid open and Kaidan glanced over to see Shepard walk in and look confused for a bit when he saw Garrus there.

Kaidan continued regardless, figuring Shepard would just jump in if he felt like it. “I paid closer attention to assigned tasks then, didn’t take as much initiative. You should know that.” Shepard stepped up beside Kaidan, looking over the screen, then focusing on Garrus, who gave him a lazy wave of greeting.

“And now you’re all grown up and doing Shepard’s paperwork. This really is the perfect relationship you have going on.”

“Who called it that?” Shepard asked.

“My bet would be Joker or Vega,” Kaidan said.

“So much more than a pretty face, dear Major,” Garrus joked as he reached out and teasingly patted Kaidan on the head, pulling away quickly when Kaidan built up and released a spark of his biotics.

“So very much more,” he agreed, returning to his monotone to cover up his amusement. Shepard stifled a laugh at his side. He then put on a bit of mock-kindness to his tone before asking, “Did you need anything else or can I get back to work?”

Garrus gave him an amused look so he knew he would continue to talk if the turian needed it. "Nah, I’m good. I know you two can only last so long before succumbing to your base hormonal urges and I’ll be happy to miss that.”

Shepard hooked his arm over Kaidan’s shoulder and leaned over to plant a kiss on his neck. Kaidan just rolled his eyes; he’d tolerate a little of Shepard using him to mess with Garrus. “Well then you better bail fast. Wanna hit the lock on your way out so no one ends up scarred by our inability to deny our primal urges?”

“I didn’t rack up any favors owed lately. Lock it yourself,” the turian shot back as he walked past them and toward the door with a wave over his shoulder.

Once the door closed behind him, Kaidan gave Shepard a curious look. “What, were your ears burning?” he asked with a smile, which was returned before Shepard reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a pair of protein bars, the ones for biotics that they couldn’t go without having in stock because of Kaidan being onboard.

“Not quite. EDI pings my omnitool when you hit eight hours without eating.”

“That might just be a misuse of your resources, if not your friends,” Kaidan responded as he grabbed the bars. He was hungry, barely past the point where he was starting to feel the first inklings of needing to eat.

“It keeps my second-in-command working at his best and gives me an excuse to see you through the day. I find it to be a way of maintaining a healthy and happy crew.”

“And hope I’ll appreciate the gesture enough to spend the night? I don’t need bribing for that just yet.”

“Well, I sort of prefer you awake for a while once you get to my cabin. You skip food and you crash, then end up with a migraine because of malnutrition.” Shepard was doing a damn good job of picking up on his bad habits and the consequences he ended up dealing with. “So, what did Garrus want?”

“Taking Liara’s advice to talk to me about something.” Shepard nodded, not even seeming like he was thinking about asking for more, respecting Garrus’ privacy like the good friend he was. “Apparently, I’m a better listener than he figured.”

“Yeah, he can not call that sort of thing well. You always listen. Even worse, you always remember. It’s a double-edged sword I still mess up handling.”

“It’s not like you miss much,” Kaidan deflected.

“Maybe. I do a little better with you than other people in general. I like listening to you, though, so that makes it easy.”

“That’s not so big of a deal.”

“Sure it is when you don’t say the most important things as much. You give me practice reading between the lines of someone who speaks his mind professionally while keeping personal details very much to himself. So, I need to listen carefully. You’re more open now so it’s easier, but I still have to listen closely to you a lot of the time to make sure I don’t miss something important.”

Despite him rambling on a bit about it, Shepard was too damn god at figuring him out.

But apparently Shepard didn’t feel like keeping them on that subject any longer than necessary because he focused back on the screen.

“I know you like the screen, but don’t you think this is a bit much?” he asked, indicating to sheer number of stacked reports open.

Kaidan activated his omnitool and cancelled his last command, clearing the screen of everything except what he’d actually been working on. “I was making a point to Garrus. Even I have my limits of how many reports I can have open at a time.”

“And it’s about fifty documents more than it should be for your sanity.”

Shepard leaned over to leave another kiss on his skin, this time at his temple before moving away, but only to sit on the couch. He grabbed a datapad and waved it at Kaidan. “Send me the latest reports on the Crucible. I’ll go through those.”

Kaidan didn’t hesitate to search those out and forward them to the datapad. “That’s brave of you: looking before I’ve cut it down.”

“I’ve actually caught up with my own work and we’re two days out. Might as well take some of yours and get you free for coming to bed faster.”

Kaidan rolled his eyes. “Always comes back to getting me in bed.”

“Well, yeah. We never got to the regularly sleeping together phase of our relationship before so now we’ve got a few years to catch up on. I guarantee you it’ll be long after we’re done with the Reapers that getting you to bed won’t be a priority.”

Kaidan turned off his omnitool and crossed his arms. “Careful, or I might think you’re only with me for my ass.”

Shepard looked up to him with a fond smile. “Impossible.”

Well, damn if that didn’t make Kaidan fall just a little bit more in love with John.

He turned toward the screen, knowing his own expression would match Shepard’s. “Good answer.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love writing Garrus. He's entertaining no matter what. ^_^  
> So, we're approaching where the next day for these guys is a little harder to announce since this is where I started skipping around which prompt I wrote for. The next one for sure is going to be the 22nd, but there is likely also going to be one on the 18th.  
> Thank you so much for reading and see you next time! :)


End file.
